Japan pM Heads to uS For Trump Summit

Japan and the US are key defence allies and each other’s leading foreign financiers

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Thursday left for the United States ahead of what will be President Donald Trump’s second top with a foreign leader considering that his return to the White House.

Japan is one of the of the United States in Asia with around 54,000 US military workers stationed in the country.

Ishiba will be pressing for reassurance on the value of the US-Japan alliance, as Trump’s „America First“ program risks trespassing on the nations’ trade and defence ties.

„It would be fantastic if we might verify that we will work together for the development this area and the world and for peace,“ Ishiba told press reporters in Tokyo before leaving for the trip.

Japan’s Nikkei paper said Thursday the pair will issue a joint statement, which might vow to develop a „golden era“ of bilateral relations and bring the alliance to „new heights“.

Ishiba is expected to inform Trump that Japan will increase defence buy from the United States, the Nikkei said.

Ishiba may also propose importing more US natural gas– chiming with Trump’s strategy to „drill, child, drill“ while improving energy security for resource-poor Japan.

Since Japan has cut its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia, it-viking.ch it „frantically needs to open up brand-new sources of LNG, and other energy more broadly“, Sheila Smith, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

„The objective is to present a win-win value proposal from Ishiba to the president,“ she said.

Trump will satisfy Ishiba in Washington on Friday– just days after a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where the US president sparked uproar with a proposition to take control of the Gaza Strip.

The Japan summit might be less stunning, menwiki.men Smith said, as Trump „has a fairly strong dedication to the alliances in Asia“.

– Taiwan danger –

Ishiba has actually worried the value of US defence ties, indicating hazards on Japan’s doorstep such as China pushing its claims of sovereignty on the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

Tokyo needs to „continue to protect the US dedication to the region, to avoid a power vacuum causing local instability“, Ishiba just recently told parliament.

Trump and Ishiba are expected to affirm the value of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese media said.

That would echo joint declarations made by the last US president Joe Biden with previous Japanese prime ministers.

Focusing on this point is „incredibly important“ because Japan and the United States must collaborate to avoid a potential crisis, pipewiki.org said Takashi Shiraishi, a global relations expert at the Prefectural University of Kumamoto.

As Japan and the United States renegotiate how to share the concern of defence costs, however, there are issues Trump might provide less money and push Japan to do more, Smith said.

„That’s where … the Ishiba-Trump relationship might get a bit sticky,“ she said.

– After Abe –

Also triggering jitters is Trump’s willingness to slap trade tariffs on major trading partners China, Canada, and Mexico– though he has actually postponed procedures against the latter two nations pending talks.

„I hope Ishiba will reveal him there are other methods to attain financial security,“ such as complying on innovation, Shiraishi told AFP.

One example is the Stargate drive, revealed after Trump’s January inauguration, to invest approximately $500 billion in AI facilities in the United States, led by Japanese tech investment behemoth SoftBank Group and US firm OpenAI.

Reports said the leaders might likewise talk about Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion quote to purchase US Steel, which Biden blocked on national security grounds.

Japan and the United States are each other’s leading foreign investors, and the Nikkei reported that the leaders will agree on producing an investment-friendly environment.

During his very first term, Trump and Japan’s then-prime minister Shinzo Abe took pleasure in warm relations.

As president-elect in December, Trump also hosted Akie Abe, the widow of Japan’s assassinated ex-premier, for systemcheck-wiki.de a dinner with Melania Trump at their Florida residence.

Trump built a strong relationship with Abe, yewiki.org for whom Smith believes he had a „authentic fondness“.

He will likely „see Ishiba through a different lens“, said Smith, and „it will be more the state-to-state relationship, not the individual“.

Ishiba, 68, will not be the first Japanese VIP to satisfy the 78-year-old Trump in person considering that he took workplace– a difference held by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son.